Could it be the ward system was better?

After resisting for three elections now, I am almost ready to surrender.

Could it be that I was wrong?

The fact is I am giving serious thought to arguing for the return of the ward system, after arguing, in the previous decade, for its overthrow, which eventually happened in 2010.

Maybe it was hearing Jeff Earle ask, for at least the second election in a row, the same question, the 2018 edition of which was: “How many people do you think are taking 20 pamphlets home and laying them out on the kitchen table to pick the best eight?”

I didn’t do that, but that’s only because I kept my pamphlets on my newsroom desk, from which I pounded out 20 different election profiles.

And I’ll let you in on a secret: I interviewed all 20 candidates and there were times, late at night as I tried to get to sleep, even I had trouble telling some of their positions apart.

But even without spreading the pamphlets out, or clipping out all 20 of our candidate profiles, merely keeping informed about civic affairs was something many Brockvillians had little time to do.

At least 1,014 voters did not stay completely up to speed, because they voted for Jeff Severson even though he pulled out of the race (too late to erase his name from the online ballot) in late August.

Voter turnout was 50.3 per cent, which is higher than the provincial average and an improvement over the last election (47.2 per cent), but still only half of eligible voters.

What portion of that non-voting 49.7 per cent chose not to go down to city hall, or log on and vote from home, because it was too unwieldy an exercise to sift through 20 different candidate pitches?

I was already beginning to come around to Earle’s point of view on the night of the Brockville Arts Centre debate, in which each of the 20 candidates had barely a minute or so to stand at the microphone and state a few campaign points.

By the end of those 20 pitches, the audience had heard the term “transparency” so often, they were beginning to see through the promise.

(Pause to duck.)

In fact, I would credit Mayor-elect Jason Baker with devising the only truly practical way to get across the 20 campaign pitches: The candidate meet-and-greet event held at the Memorial Centre hall, which my colleague dubbed a political speed-dating exercise.

Rather than hear often similar pitches from the stage from 20 different speakers, voters were invited to walk from table to table and speak with each candidate one-on-one.

The advantages of returning to the ward system seem clear after this latest unwieldy election.

Rather than having to choose eight councillors out of 20, residents would have to pick two or three out of maybe five or six, depending on how these new wards would be redrawn. (Given that we’ve dropped a council seat since the last time we had wards, it might make sense to carve out four wards instead of three, and give each one two reps.)

Voters would get more face time with each of the candidates, who would no longer have to cross the breadth of the city on what is often a shoestring budget.

And some neighbourhood-specific issues, a speed bump here, increased police patrols there, might get an airing.

But I said I am “almost” ready to change my mind.

Because I have not quite forgotten the infamous election of 2003, when six of the eight incumbent councillors were returned without a fight because there were no other candidates to challenge them in the west and centre wards.

I have also not forgotten how, despite a long history of having the city carved into three sections, many voters were unaware of which ward they inhabited.

Nor has it dropped out of my memory that, in the previous system, councillor candidates could run in whichever ward they chose, making it easier for candidates, at the close of nominations, to consider switching their names around like chess pieces to land on the square they felt to be most advantageous.

But then, one could imagine a discussion in which these problems are worked out before a new ward system is drawn up.

It’s not something our new councillors are likely to take up before first dealing with such pressing matters as cannabis retail and the hiring of a new city manager.

But at some point in this coming term, after three straight unwieldy, pamphlet-stacking elections, I am ready at least to have a conversation.

City hall reporter Ronald Zajac can be reached at Rzajac@postmedia.com.